#3 - The irrefutable case for not using your brain🧠

I checked the date a week ago, and realized that apart from it being time to wake up Greenday, it was high time I finished writing this article. So, here we go.

💡Something thoughtful

“We say that we want peace of mind but what we really want is peace from mind”. -Naval

We live in an age of information overload to the point of brain fatigue, and it’s more important than ever to be conservative with our mental energy. Today, let’s talk about all the obvious and not so obvious situations that don’t really require your brain. The less your brain has to work for mundane nothings, the more resources it can dedicate to your more intellictual and creative pursuits. It’s a no brainer (See what I did there? 🙈)

Did I spend time thinking when and what workout I should do today? Was it necessary? Did it drain my mental energy before I even began my workout? Can I just join a class that has a fixed schedule? Or have my workout routine planned for the week in advance? Or hire a trainer that will tell me what to do when? The point is:

I am much more likely to succesfully accomplish something if I don’t have to use my brain for it.

It was an interesting realization. So I sat down and thought about all the things that I can do quite effortlessly compared to the average person, and things that I struggle with compared to the average person. No points for guessing, but turns out I am much better at accomplishing things that I have a system in place for and don’t have to think about too much. I struggle with discipline for the ones that I have to overcome mental inertia for.

Are you more likely to remember to do your friend a favor they asked for if you wrote it down on a to do list when they told you?

Are you spending time and energy thinking about what to eat everyday? Would it be much easier if you already knew Monday was Italian day and Tuesday was salad night?

Which fun plan works out more often? Your adhoc “let’s go for ice-cream if you’re free” call to a friend or your recurring Sunday evening badminton game and Tuesday movie nights?

In a world where mental energy is a finite precious resource, learning how to mindlessly execute is a superpower 🦸🏻. Just something to think about 🙂

😁 Something that made me smile

Ever thought it’d be cool to have a cartoon or comic strip about you and your life? An awesome artist on Instagram is making it happen by taking custom requests to draw you a cute cartoon of yourself doing whatever. The end results are adorable. Highly recommend checking them out.

And completely unrelated, but how insanely cool is this ski wedding. If you’re reading this, aren’t married yet and get inspired, I would really really appreciate an invite 🙈

🕶️ Something I didn’t know : South Korea and Tamil Nadu

South Korea and the Indian state of Tamil Nadu are thousands of miles apart. And yet, the Tamil and Korean languages have 500 words that are either exactly or almost the same.

The similarities don’t stop there. Both places share quite a bit in the form of food ingredients, dance forms and games. According to Korean literature (Samguk Yusa), about 2000 years ago, an Indian princess named Sembavalam married a Korean King and went on to become one of the most admired queens of Korea. 10% of the Korean population is believed to be a descendent of this queen and likely has Indian genes. Fascinating, to say the least. [Source]

🧬 Something life changing

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” – David Allen

We start absorbing an obscene amount of information the moment we’re born, and unless you’re Bradley Cooper in Limitless, you’re retaining a miniscule amount compared to what you absorb, and an even tinier amount that you can search and filter through when you need it. What if you could help your biological brain by supplementing it with a permanent and digital one?

🧠 Building yourself a second brain* : What is a second brain? It’s a way to organize knowledge you’re consuming day to day from your friends, books, podcasts and environment into an organized and searchable digital space that allows you to not only remember and find, but connect your learnings across time and subjects.

Creating one for myself has had significant positive improvements to my life, and I can only wish it does the same for you. So what does my second brain look like …

I used Notion to build mine and use it as a centralized place to journal, track projects, gather learnings from books and podcasts, dwell on my values and goals, collect recipes, build good habits and much much more. This newsletter owes its existence ONLY and ONLY to my second brain.

Here is a glimpse:

What you see above is less than half the stuff I have in mine. Maybe one day, I’ll be comfortable putting all the things I have in there out on the internet. Today is not that day 🙂. But I hope what I am sharing here is sufficient to give you an idea of how to kickstart your own.

Some useful things I use my second brain for:

• Goals: I benefit from writing down my goals, personal or professional, serious or silly (especially silly) at the start of a year, so I can refer to them whenever I feel like. I reflect on them at the end of the year to see how things went, and when I am setting goals for 2023, I’ll have everything I have ever “wanted” to do since 2017 in one place as a reference.

• Ongoing personal projects: Say I have a health-related goal. I ll collect information about food, diet, sleep or anything else that contributes to my goal outcome from a variety of sources, so I can combine it and use it effectively.

Some useless (to you) things that I use my second brain for:

• Do you know how many times the following has happened to me?

  My friend recommends a sushi restaurant. It sounds awesome. It’s in my brain occupying space for 15-20 days. Then i forget about it. It is six months later. I am hanging out with someone who says “Let’s get some sushi. Know any good places?”. We waste half an hour finding a good restaurant.

  The answer is ♾️.

Not anymore. If you even mention a restaurant to me once, I have it locked and loaded. Ready to go. Searchable by cuisine and location. Sound crazy? Crazy efficient maybe 😉

And last, but MOST:

Do you know what is the best way to remember an amazing moment that happened in your life yesterday, 10 years from now? Document it. Oh, what? You don’t pull out your phone to capture a moment because it ruins it ? Bla Bla Bla. No worries. Write about it this weekend in a journal (a digital one within your second brain). When you get to re-live it 10 years later, you will thank me. I promise.

🎧 Sometimes I wish I could go back in life, not to change things, but just to feel things twice -Drake

And with that, #3 is done and dusted. I hope you enjoyed reading this issue and will share it with one other person who’d find it valuable. Also, if you were born in the 90’s, but didn’t get my opening joke, I just want you to know I am disappointed in you.

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*Reference: Tiago Forte’s Building a second brain